Rivers, Gatherings, and Infrastructures

2021 ◽  
pp. 56-61
Author(s):  
Straw Will
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Distribution ◽  
The Relationship

From an interdisciplinary communications studies perspective, this chapter triangulates the relationship between several ascendant approaches to music, media, and infrastructure. The author notes that infrastructure and affect have performed certain “gathering” functions within the past decades of media studies, albeit as distant poles of attraction. The chapter registers a similarly productive tension in the ways that infrastructural studies of music reassemble their object as the point of convergence of multiple histories of materials, movements, and social processes, while infrastructural media studies trace the ways in which materials, networks, and assemblages of various kinds carry out the social distribution of meaning, affect, and memory.

Sociolinguistics: Theory

1984 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 46-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Heller
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Social ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Social Distribution ◽  
The Relationship

In 1980, in this journal, Joshua Fishman presented the major theoretical issue in sociolinguistics as being the link between microsociolinguistic and macrosociolinguistic processes. In 1984 that is still the case, although the issue is receiving more explicit attention than it did four years ago.There are two branches of sociolinguistics which approach this issue in different ways. These two branches are interactionist and variationist sociolinguistics. Interactionist sociolinguistics is principally interested in what language use can tell us about social processes, and therefore a central concern is the social meaning of language use. Variationist sociolinguistics is interested in accounting for linguistic variation and change, at least partly as a product of the social distribution of language varieties. It is, therefore, less concerned with meaning as process, and more concerned with the interaction of linguistic and social systems; in this view the significance of language is mainly symbolic. In this review, I will discuss the contributions of these branches to the problem of the relationship between microsociolinguistics and macrosociolinguistics, as well as the theoretical problems peculiar to each branch.

scholarly journals Understanding and managing a complex estuary: the process towards more congruence between the physical system characteristics and the management system of the Westerschelde (Netherlands)

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1371-1405
Author(s):  
A. van Buuren ◽  
L. Gerrits
Keyword(s):  
Social Processes ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Westerschelde Estuary ◽  
Adaptive Capabilities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Unique Species ◽  
System Characteristics

Abstract. In this article, we expand on the relationship between the social processes of policymaking, management and research in the context of the Westerschelde estuary. This complex estuary system, located in Belgium and the Netherlands, has its own morphological and ecological characteristics and dynamics, and has three core functions: economically, it makes the port of Antwerp accessible; ecologically, it generates habitats for certain unique species; and in terms of safety, it prevents the hinterland from being flooded. We analyze how the social processes of policymaking, management and analysis have focused on these three aspects, and how they have affected the estuary. We proceed to develop a framework for evaluating the social system of policy-making, management and research. This framework focuses on the social system's adaptive capabilities (how it evolved in a non-linear fashion), integrative capacity (how the system's interconnectivity was taken into account), and participative competencies (how the different interests and insights regarding the estuary were absorbed). This framework was then applied to twenty years of policymaking about, management of, and research on the Westerschelde estuary. We conclude that, because of policy learning effects, policy/management and research take the estuary's self-organizing capacities into account much more than they did in the past. However, the self-referential behaviour of policymakers, managers and researchers makes it possible that an anthropocentric and technocratic approach towards managing the estuary, indicating a disconnection between the social and physical systems, could return.

scholarly journals Metapragmatic stereotypes about geographical diversity in Greece

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-154
Author(s):  
Dimitris Papazachariou ◽  
Anna Fterniati ◽  
Argiris Archakis ◽  
Vasia Tsami
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Geographical Variation ◽  
School Location ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Children's Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Over the past decades, contemporary sociolinguistics has challenged the existence of fixed and rigid linguistic boundaries, thus focusing on how the speakers themselves define language varieties and how specific linguistic choices end up being perceived as language varieties. In this light, the present paper explores the influence of metapragmatic stereotypes on elementary school pupils’ attitudes towards geographical varieties. Specifically, we investigate children’s beliefs as to the acceptability of geographical varieties and their perception of the overt and covert prestige of geographical varieties and dialectal speakers. Furthermore, we explore the relationship between the children’s specific beliefs and factors such as gender, the social stratification of the school location and the pupils’ performance in language subjects. The data of the study was collected via questionnaires with closed questions. The research findings indicate that the children of our sample associate geographical varieties with rural settings and informal communicative contexts. Moreover, children recognize a lack of overt prestige in geographical variation; at the same time, they evaluate positively the social attractiveness and the personal reliability of the geographical varieties and their speakers. Our research showed that pupils’ beliefs are in line with the dominant metapragmatic stereotypes which promote language homogeneity.

scholarly journals ‘A Kind of Sensory, Strange Thing to Experience’: Speaking Environmental Disaster in the Sea Empress Project Archive

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Sensory Event ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores embodied encounters with the Sea Empress oil spill of 1996 and their representation in oral narratives. Through a close reading of the personal testimonies collected in the Sea Empress Project archive, I examine the relationship between intense sensory experiences of environmental change and everyday interpretations of the disaster and its legacy. The art­icle first outlines the ways in which this collection of voices reveals sensory memories, embodied affects and narrative choices to be deeply entwined in oral representations of the spill, disclosing a ‘sensory event’ that created a powerful awareness of both environmental surroundings and their relationship to everyday social processes. Then, reading these narratives against-the-grain, I argue that narrators’ accounts tell a paradoxical story of a disaster that most now wish to forget, and reveal an ambivalent legacy of environmental change that is similarly consigned to the past. Finally, I relate this social forgetting of the Sea Empress to the wider history of environmental consciousness in modern Britain.

The impact of setting on wine tasting experiments

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 578-590
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Lewis ◽  
Steve Charters ◽  
Benoît Lecat ◽  
Tatiana Zalan ◽  
Marianna McGarry Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Subjective Assessment ◽  
Social Setting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wine Consumption ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose Tasting experiments involving willingness to pay (WTP) have grown over the past few years; however, most of them occur in formal wine-tasting conditions, removed from real-world experience. This study aims to conduct experiments on wine appreciation and willingness to pay in both settings, to allow a comparison of how tasters reached conclusions in different situations. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two sets of experiments in Dijon, France, with knowledgeable wine drinkers, in 2014 and in 2016, to explore the relationship between wine ratings, WTP and objective characteristics (appellation, labelling and price). The first was in a formal wine-tasting setting (n = 58), and the second in the social setting of a restaurant (n = 52). The experiments involved deception: the tasters were presented with five wines, but in fact only three wines were involved, two of the wines being presented twice. Findings The results from the 2014 study showed that even with a group of experienced tasters, objective characteristics overwhelmed subjective assessment (taste, sensory perception) of the wine. Ratings and WTP were driven by the appellation or brand, labelling and price of the wines. The authors replicated the experiment in a social setting in 2016 which, contrary to their expectations, produced very similar results. In neither experiment did the experienced tasters detect the deception. Research limitations/implications The social setting was a lunch in a restaurant with a group of students who were graduating together. The tasting was conducted by some of their professors, which may have influenced the results and raises questions about whether the setting was truly ‘social’. The sample size for the experiments was comparatively small and further research, including novice and expert tasters, might contradict these findings, or at least add nuances to them. Originality/value The study finds that, contrary to expectations, in the social wine consumption setting of a restaurant meal enjoyed with colleagues, objective wine characteristics over-rode subjective appreciation of the wine.

Can we be friends with Mitsuku? A longitudinal study on the process of relationship formation between humans and a social chatbot

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-300
Author(s):  
Emmelyn A. J. Croes ◽  
Marjolijn L. Antheunis
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Relationship Formation ◽  
Social Attraction ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Abcde Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Machine Communication ◽  
The Relationship

This explorative study investigated (a) whether social attraction, self-disclosure, interaction quality, intimacy, empathy and communicative competence play a role in getting-acquainted interactions between humans and a chatbot, and (b) whether humans can build a relationship with a chatbot. Although human-machine communication research suggests that humans can develop feelings for computers, this does not automatically imply that humans experience feelings of friendship with a chatbot. In this longitudinal study, 118 participants had seven interactions with chatbot Mitsuku over a 3-week period. After each interaction participants filled out a questionnaire. The results showed that the social processes decreased after each interaction and feelings of friendship were low. In line with the ABCDE model of relationship development, the social processes that aid relationship continuation decrease, leading to deterioration of the relationship. Furthermore, a novelty effect was at play after the first interaction, after which the chatbot became predictable and the interactions less enjoyable.

Collective Memory

Sociology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Simko
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emile Durkheim ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Memory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
Monuments And Memorials ◽  
The Relationship

Collective memory encompasses both the shared frameworks that shape and filter ostensibly “individual” or “personal” memories and representations of the past sui generis, including official texts, commemorative ceremonies, and physical symbols such as monuments and memorials. Sociological work on collective memory traces its origins to Émile Durkheim and his student, Maurice Halbwachs. In the United States, the contemporary sociology of memory coalesced in the 1980s and 1990s, after Barry Schwartz brought renewed attention to Durkheim’s focus on commemoration as well as Halbwachs’s interest in how the past is reconstructed in the present, in the service of present needs, interests, and desires. Though this line of research initially emphasized heroic pasts—particularly national commemorations that bolstered state legitimacy with reference to triumphant episodes—scholars quickly began to address the ways that collectivities grapple with “difficult pasts,” or episodes that evoke shame, regret, and/or dissensus, and that threaten to “spoil” national identity. What is the relationship between memory and forgetting, and related concepts such as silence and denial? Can the increasingly pervasive language of “trauma” help us understand the current preoccupation with difficult pasts in both scholarly literature and public culture? More recently, scholars have critiqued the field’s overwhelming focus on national memory from two angles. First, studies of micro-level memories have revived Halbwachs’s initial interest in the social frameworks that structure (seemingly) individual memories. Second, globalization facilitates connectedness and identification beyond and/or outside of national frames of reference, and thus scholars have pointed to the emergence of “cosmopolitan” memories that create community and solidarity beyond and outside formal political borders.

Employment, Individualization and Insecurity: Rethinking the Risk Society Perspective

2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabe Mythen
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Sweeping Process ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Environmental Transitions ◽  
German Sociologist ◽  
Social Distribution ◽  
Society Perspective ◽  
The Relationship

German sociologist Ulrich Beck maintains that economic, technological and environmental transitions have radically reshaped employment relations in Western Europe. Whilst theories of employment transformation are historically ubiquitous, Beck's contribution is rather unique. Utilising risk as a lens through which subterranean shifts in employment, the economy and society can be visualised, Beck's work has been heralded as a significant theoretical landmark. The risk society perspective emphasizes the diffusion of two interlinked macro-social processes. Firstly, Beck identifies a sweeping process of individualization which recursively generates personal insecurity and reflexive decision-making. Secondly, changes in the relationship between capital and labour are said to have facilitated an underlying shift in the pattern of social distribution. This paper scrutinises Beck's understanding of these two processes, as a means of developing a broader critique of the risk society perspective. Theoretically, it will be argued that Beck deploys unsophisticated and artificial categories, amalgamates disparate forms of risk and compacts together diverse employment experiences. Empirically, the paper demonstrates that – far from being directed by a universal axis of risk – labour market inequalities follow the grooves etched by traditional forms of stratification.

scholarly journals Opera and the anthropologist: An odd couple?

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-70
Author(s):  
Vlado Kotnik
Keyword(s):  
Western Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Michel Leiris ◽  
The Social ◽  
Biographical Account ◽  
The Relationship

The discussion starts with a mere statement of fact which also denotes the relationship between opera and anthropology: on one hand opera is a quite new and " exotic" topic for anthropologists, on the other anthropology is still perceived as a very strange and unusual approach to opera. The author establishes many reasons and endeavors which suggest that opera and anthropology no longer need to be alien to each other. If social or cultural anthropologists did not go to the opera very often in the past, this has certainly changed. The article thus introduces the work of six anthropologists whose personal and professional affinity for opera has been undoubtedly explicated in their academic and biographical account: Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Leiris, William O. Beeman, Denis Laborde, Paul Atkinson, and author’s opera research. The primary aim of this article is to show that anthropology can say something about the social and cultural phenomenon that throughout the last four hundred years significantly influenced and reflected the identity of Western culture.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Content Used, Time Spent and Cyberbullying on Social Media with Social Skills

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Zakiah Megat Ibrahim ◽  
◽  
Mohammad Shamsul Ibrahim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Theory Of Planned Behaviour ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Corporate Communication ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Planned Behavior Theory ◽  
The Relationship

Based on the past research, there are still limited studies in proving content used on social media, time spent on social media, cyberbullying contributes to the social skills that are deemed unimportant and irrelevant in Malaysia. Therefore, this study is intended to show the variables do have a relationship with one another, determining each of the objectives in this research is proven right. This study applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour as the main theory to fortify and take the relationships at a greater distance between each variable. Quantitative methods were applied in this study and data were collected through the distribution of questionnaires to 181 respondents who were students at Kolej Universiti Poly-Tech MARA pursuing a Diploma in Corporate Communication. Besides, the findings showed a significant relationship between content used on social media, time spent on social media, cyberbullying to behaviour, and the reaction of an individual. Established evidence between variables that are, content used on social media, time spent on social media and cyberbullying is affecting behaviour and reaction of an individual. Hence, this study assisted the field of communication through the establishment of a more comprehensive variable related to the behaviour and reaction of an individual and supported to Planned Behavior Theory.

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